In residential and other structures, electrical outlets are generally positioned a short distance above the floor. This makes the outlets readily accessible to small children. A curious child is inclined to test and probe his environment and may stick objects, such as paper clips, into the prong receiving openings of an electrical outlet. This exposes him to the danger of shock or even death.
Additionally, an exposed outlet presents the problem of “carbon fires” that can occur when dust accumulates in an outlet.
In spite of generally widespread knowledge of the dangers that electrical outlets present to small children, very few devices are commercially available for denying a child access to an outlet. The most commonly available device is a small plastic disk with prongs that plug into the openings of an outlet receptacle. The disk covers the receptacle and takes the place of an electrical plug to prevent insertion of any other object in the openings. A major disadvantage of this type of device is that the disk may easily become lost or mislaid when it is temporarily removed to allow normal use of the outlet.
There have been a number of proposals for providing a permanently mounted safety cover for electrical outlets to make the prong receiving openings inaccessible to a child. Such proposals generally provide an inadequate solution either because the safety cover is too easily defeated by a child who is still too young to understand the dangers of electricity or because the covering device is unduly complicated and/or cumbersome.
It is desired to have an improved electrical outlet safety cover that avoids some of the problems of the prior art.